State Programs
State Summary 2010 — New Jersey
State Contact
Ms. Joan Elliott
New Jersey Agricultural Society
P.O. Box 331
Trenton, NJ 08625
P: 609.984.2520
F: 609.292.3978
E: joan.elliott@ag.state.nj.us
Website
Classroom Resources
No comments
Major Program Accomplishments or Outputs
The Learning through Gardening (LTG) program funded eleven elementary school gardens throughout New Jersey. A kick off pep rally was held at ten of the schools, with the entire student body in attendance. Students participated in an assembly to introduce the annual poster and essay contest Food, Fitness and Fun. Demonstrations of how active one can be while working in the garden and the benefits of eating fresh produce were the themes of the pep rally. We had 100% participation from the LTG schools in the poster and essay contest. Classroom teachers at each school participated in professional development workshops such as Cultivate the Curriculum-an introduction to school gardening, Supermarket Science-a hands-on approach to teaching science using common food items, and Smart Snacks-the science behind why certain snacks are good for you. In addition, all garden committee members participated in a full day workshop to share their successes from the planting season and learn hands-on activities to teach nutrition. In November, LTG attended the NJEA convention to distribute information on the garden grant program, as well as present two workshops.
Major Program Impacts or Outcomes
*Approximately 5700 students were given the opportunity to grow and harvest their own food. *100% of teachers surveyed reported an increase in student interest in science, math and language arts *3652 students participated in a poster and essay contest to celebrate farm city week *1600 students sampled food prepared with student-grown herbs and vegetables
Biosketch
Joni Elliott has a BA from Connecticut College and an MA from the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University. She currently works for the NJ Department of Agriculture and serves as the Executive Director of the NJ Agricultural Society. She has been in these positions for almost 19 years and throughout this time has been responsible for New Jersey's Ag in the Classroom Program. While in this position, Mrs. Elliott also developed the NJ Agricultural Leadership Development Program, which provides leadership training for young agriculturalists in New Jersey, as well as the Farmers Against Hunger program. The Farmers Against Hunger program collects more than 1.5 million pounds of fresh produce and distributes it to more than 6,000 needy people in New Jersey every week, 52 weeks a years.
While in her current position, promoting the importance of agriculture to the state's economy and quality of life to the non-farm public, she has also planned and executed a farm tour for New Jersey Legislators and members of the Governor's senior staff, where participants go to farms and learn directly from farmers how they farm in the country's most densely populated state.
Prior to joining the NJ Department of Agriculture, Mrs. Elliott worked for the NJ Legislature as a budget analyst, was a Washington lobbyist at Johnson & Johnson, and served as a policy advisor to Governor Thomas Kean. Mrs. Elliott is married to Dr. Zane Helsel.